Room Temperature Regioselective Catalytic Hydrodefluorination of Fluoroarenes with trans-[Ru(NHC) H ] through a Concerted Nucleophilic Ru-H Attack Pathway.

The efficient and highly selective room temperature hydrodefluorination (HDF) of fluoroarenes by the trans-[Ru(IMe ) H ] catalyst, 3, is reported. Mechanistic studies show 3 acts directly in catalysis without any ligand dissociation and DFT calculations indicate a concerted nucleophilic attack mechanism. The calculations fully account for the observed selectivities which corroborate earlier predictions regarding the selectivity of HDF.